Kovac: Dortmund ´haven´t achieved anything yet´


Niko Kovac warned Borussia Dortmund they “haven’t achieved anything yet” this season as they prepare to host Augsburg in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund are currently 11 points behind league leaders Bayern Munich in second, but Kovac’s side look set to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Unless they produce a stunning comeback in the title race, BVB are unlikely to win any trophies after their Champions League and DFB-Pokal exits to Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively.

Dortmund have accumulated 55 points after 25 Bundesliga games this season – their best points tally at this stage in seven years (57 points in 2018-19).

A win against Augsburg would see Dortmund surpass their total points haul from the entire Bundesliga season in 2024-25 (57), which Kovac is eager for them to do.

“We haven’t achieved anything yet. We have 55 points, which is two points fewer than at the end of last season,” said Kovac.

“There are still 27 points up for grabs. To achieve our goals, i.e. to qualify for the Champions League, we still need to pick up a few more points.

“We, as the coaching team and staff, will do everything we can to ensure that the lads remain focused. You could see that in training today as it was pretty intense.”

Augsburg will provide a stern test for Dortmund, with the visitors having won five of their last seven league games (L2).

That run started with a 2-1 win over Bayern at Allianz Arena, and Kovac anticipates a tough task for his BVB side.

“It’s a team that has stabilised, concedes very little, scores very few goals, is very compact and plays very intense and aggressive football,” added the Dortmund boss.

“They are a team that will certainly challenge us.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Borussia Dortmund – Maximilian Beier

Beier registered his 11th and 12th goal involvements of this Bundesliga season on the last matchday; only Serhou Guirassy has more for BVB (13).

On average, Beier is directly involved in a Bundesliga goal every 113 minutes in 2025-26, which is his personal best in a Bundesliga season.

Augsburg – Alexis Claude-Maurice

Claude-Maurice has been directly involved in eight goals in his last eight Bundesliga appearances (four goals, four assists).

Since the start of MD17, only Bayern’s Harry Kane (11) and Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric (nine) have registered more goal involvements across the league than the Frenchman, who is set to make his 50th Bundesliga appearance.

MATCH PREDICTION – BORUSSIA DORTMUND WIN

Dortmund have gained the joint-most points in the current Bundesliga second half of the season with Bayern (19 each). They are one of only two sides, along with Bayern, to have gained more points in this period than Augsburg (16, level with Hoffenheim).

Augsburg have never gained more points in the first eight matchdays of the second half of a top-flight season than they have this campaign (also 16 in the season preceding this one).

Dortmund won the reverse Bundesliga fixture 1-0 with only one shot on target in that match. BVB have not had fewer total shots (five) or a lower expected goals figure (0.3 xG) in any other Bundesliga game this season.

Kovac’s side have scored in each of their last 33 Bundesliga matches – their only longer scoring run in the top-flight was between October 2020 and September 2021 (37 games).

At home, BVB have scored in each of their last 16 Bundesliga matches since losing 0-1 to Augsburg in their last Bundesliga meeting at Signal Iduna Park, which was also the last time the visitors kept a clean sheet away from home in the top-flight.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Borussia Dortmund – 62.9%

Draw – 19.8%

Augsburg – 17.3%





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